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Sunday~"How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from you commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." Psalm 119:9-11

Why do we try to conform God to our will? Live in His word and know true joy.

Monday~"Make me to know your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old."
Psalm 25:4-6

God reveals the truth of our time and all time to us through Scripture.

Tuesday~"The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the tstimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple: the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb."
Psalm 19:7-10

All the laws in all the books in all the libraries of the world are but a footnote to the law of God.

Wednesday~"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways ackowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."
Proverbs 3:5-6

To know and understand God comes not through our intellect, but through the wisdom given to us by the grace of God.

Thursday~"My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart."
Proverbs 3:1-3

Friday~"The the LORD answered Job our of the whirlwind and said: 'Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding, Who determined its measurements - surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? Or who laid its cornerstond...?'"
Job 38:1, 4-6

When we measure God by our limited standards, we attempt to measure the elephant by weighing one strand of its hair.

Saturaday~"Philip said to him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.' Jesus said to him, 'Have I been with you so lon, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father?'"
John 14:8-9

Christ is God made flesh. If you want to know God, you must draw closer to Jesus.

We have been working on John 3:16 with the kids for a while and Princess can do it all by herself, but when the camera is on she is kind of a diva and forgets where she is at! Mommy helped a little in those places! She has done it on her own, just ask Grandma!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

We were able to get together with my Mom's side of the family the day after Christmas. We loaded up in the suburban and headed for MN. It had been a while since we had last seen most of that side of the family, so it was good to get to spend some time with them!

We were thankful for the DVD players in the suburban...it helped make all the miles go very smoothly (or at least as smoothly as one could expect with two 2 year olds!)

It seems that there is some tradition of taking pictures of the only 2 granddaughters, however, Sara looks great and me, well not so much...thanks for taking it while I was talking!

One of Sara's jobs is working at an apple orchard, and the Honey Crisp apples she brought for us were a big hit for the kids...between the 2 of them they ate 3! Princess NEVER eats apples!

Grandpa was trying to take a nap and the kids (egged on my Sara) were saying "wake up Brampa, WAKE UP!"

Ever since Sunshine has been a little guy, Jess has had a soft spot for him...it continued during our short time with this side of the family...thanks for loving on him Jess!Princess thought that Kaylee's Rainforest stroller was LOTS of fun!
She had brought her new Baby Wendy (thanks Aunt Christy & Uncle Zachie!) So she pushed her around for a long time! Sunshine joined in on the fun as well!

Kaylee and Regan had a picnic for Princess & Sunshine while we were waiting for the real food!Since it was the day before Sunshine's 2nd birthday, they were all troopers and threw him a party! John Deere theme again ya know!He did pretty well blowing out his candles!Grandpa & Grandma gave hime two John Deere puzzles...thank you!The Johnson clan gave him this ADORABLE hat! He is also opening one of his gifts from Mommy & Daddy...a book called the Squire & the Scroll ~ a must for Christian families with little boys...also check into The Princess & the Kiss ~ a must for Christian families with little girls!We even let him have some ice cream, he enjoyed it. But no cake for this birthday boy!

Mom, Sara, Matt & Kaylee chatting it up/eating some cake! It was good to finally meet Matt!Uncle Bob! He has been such a blessing to Handsome & Myself since the very first time I brought Handsome to one of these family get togethers...R&K the only other Larson great grandchildren!

I know I am a bit behind...this moving stuff is just taking up all my time! Here are some leftovers, I will attempt to catch up as much as possible today...we shall see!

This is little Sunshine taking a bath on the 22nd, the kids have a new found love of the bath now that they can "swim" like Nemo! They should love the waterpark we are going to over Valentines weekend!

Doing tricks while waiting to open stockings on the 23rd... Mommy didn't shop small enough items that they could be 'stuffed' into the stockings, so had to wrap them!

Is he just not the most handsome little man EVER!?!

AG excited about her 'doodle' but checking to see if there was more, she got into the presents this time!

She didn't notice the large ladybug hooded towel staring her down...she wanted to get to the bottom...

Monday, January 19, 2009

Okay, so in the midst of this CRAZY! time I was invited to this great little party the other day. Something I hadn't heard of before. ~*~Scentsy~*~ Two of our friends were doing a party and it was great. They are wick less candles that you can buy warmers for, they use a 25 watt bulb instead of a tea light and have TONS of different scents. My FAVORITES were Watermelon Patch, Amaretto, Wasabi Ginger, & Sun kissed Citrus. Although Strawberry Sweetie, Nutmeg & Orange Zest, Cherry Clove Chutney, Tuscan Garden, Thunderstorm, Mysterious, French Kiss, & Havana Cabana were right up there too! I ended up getting one of the regular warmers "Raised Dot in Mocha" for our bedroom and one of the plug in warmers in "Dandy ~ Turquoise". I cannot wait for them to get here! Go over toScentsyand check them out...see if you can find a consultant in your area, become one, or ask me...the lady that was at this party was very nice!

Friday, January 16, 2009

I should apologize for not linking you up to this sooner! My children have been receiving free books through the Dolly Partons Imagination Library for over a year. The greatest thing is that any child can receive books once a month until they turn 5! While all the children in your house that apply at the same time will receive the same books every month, I like that because some day they will each have a set of good books to take with them for their children!

Anyway, enough about that...go to this link and you can register and start getting your books for February or March!

Monday, January 05, 2009

Thank you to all of my faithful readers...I do not know who most of you are that are reading this, but it does seem that there is a few of you! I wouldn't have reached 5500 visitors in a little over a year if it were not because of YOU!

If you feel up to it, please leave a comment so I know you are there! Sometimes it is kind of creepy knowing there are so many people checking us out and not knowing who it is that is doing so! Please, feel free to leave comments whenever you like!

Thanks for reading, whether you choose to let yourself be known or not!

Hope 2009 is treating you well so far! May this year be one that is used to serve the Lord!

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Today Handsome and Sunshine took a load of stuff to the city dump with Grandpa Denny and then went to the house to work work work! APrincess & Mommy went to dance class, got some paint, picked up lunch, and went to the house to work work work! The newness of being at the 'new house' for the kids has officially worn out as they do have have roaming privileges yet due to wet paint and floors without flooring. So, they either get to stay in what is the master bedroom, or get corralled to a pack n play with their mega blocks. Both were fun the first few times...now they get bored real fast. Well today while I was painting the second bathroom (for the 2nd time!) I put a little spot of paint on both of their noses...you would have thought I had just given them the world! They ran over to Daddy to show him and Princess had a whole slew of words that came out very excitedly! They liked it there so much they didn't want me to wash it off, so we had to take a picture...you can see it better on Princess than on Sunshine...so it goes.

Princess using a paint can for a table at lunch time with Daddy Since this is the first house we have owned since becoming parents, we had to put a personal touch to it. Originally I was just going to put each of the kids' hand prints on their bedroom walls, but then when I was repainting the bathroom I was thinking about this Arctic Cat green (slight mix up in communication) and how while I didn't want it to be on an entire wall, I didn't want the $30 to go to complete waste...so I asked Handsome if it would be okay to let the kids put their hand prints on the wall in the frog bathroom. He not only thought it was a fun idea (this really isn't the man I married...he's better!) he thought the Mommy and Daddy should do it as well! Because of Sunshine having stubby little pinkies like Mommy his didn't show up so good! And we have almost an entire gallon of this color so there will be extra to add whenever the Lord grows our family!

This is APrincess's room...since we are living in a Mobile Home with the seams running every so often we decided to make the most of them in her room and give her stripes!

Sunshine's cowboy/John Deere room...we are going to get some rope and use it as border between the 2 colors on his walls!

The rest of the pictures you will have to wait and see! We officially have 3 rooms completed painting and 6 to go, at this rate we will be moving in before we are finished! Guess I will have to buck up and work later every night next week...and maybe Handsome will have to live with the tears that go along with it (from Mommy!)

A journey similar to my own, but different at the same time. I have been subscribing to "Parenthood for Me" for a while now and I guess the reason is because the path she walked and the path we are walking are so similar, it is just nice to know that we didn't do this alone...there is someone else out there who really DOES understand what we are going through! So with that, go and check out "My IF Shoes" at Parenthood for Me!

She puts it better than I ever could, although we have not done any surgeries or anything to that extent. My diagnosis of PCOS (and yes it IS a real thing ~ ask me later if you really need to know why I HAVE to point that out!), our miscarriages, my weight issues, my fertility treatments, all the needles, all the pills, all the tears, all the times that we wonder why...well, this lady who is an adoptive mom, really puts what I have felt into words.

Off of her topic ~ slightly ~ I know that I have two wonderful children, and I know that God has blessed us with them...but I also know that the desire to have more is God given as well. And while this recent occurrence in our life is a slight blow to the adoption plan, we still plan on adopting at least one more time. We are praying about a few things right now that might help bring us closer to adoption sooner, but we also do not want to step out of Gods Will for OUR lives. That means that while many people have offered wonderful advise it is us that needs to get on our knees before God and listen for His guidance in OUR lives. I am not going to lie, the month of December stung ALOT and I feel like Christmas was robbed away from us...not only by what happened with the church but also by what went on on Ethan's birthday with certain things being said about me. I am GLAD December is over!!! I look forward to what is in store for 2009 and quite honestly cannot wait for January to be through as well. This may sound like complaining, and to some it may be. But just to see how tired my husband is and how badly our children want to have normal again, and need it, it will be nice to be settled into our new LITTLE house and proceed with life according to what God wants.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Have you heard about February 10th 2009? AKA ~ "National Bankruptcy Day"

It is a day when a new law is going to come into effect that could likely have an effect on all of my readers here. Congress, in effort of trying to save us from all the bad China toy recalls have passed a bill coming active February 10th that will cause all children's products (toys, clothes, jewelery, the like) to have to be tested which can cost up to $4000.00 per product. This will also eliminate resale of all these products as well. If you are an EBay shopper like myself, this will really crunch the budget for buying kids clothes and toys.

For more information on this and what you can do about it check out this blog here.

It was 2 years ago RIGHT NOW that I received the phone call to go to the hospital as there was a baby that needed a home. Who would have ever guessed that packing up my then 3 month old daughter and driving a total of 4 blocks would bring home such a blessing! Praise God for Ethan and the blessing he has been to our family!

I haven't filled anyone in for a while on what is going on in our lives. We are to be out of the parsonage by January 31st and because of some VERY good friends we are buying a mobile home from them through contract for deed. We are thankful to know that we will have a roof over our heads. It did need some work before we moved in, and if you know my husband he is very good at cleaning things up. We are currently painting every wall in the house, it is a 1994 and it had the early 90's wallpaper throughout. Not a terrible thing, but it needed updating. We are also putting new carpet in the kids' rooms and new vinyl in the kitchen, dinning room, back entry, and 2nd bathroom. Jason is working on updating all the light fixtures and we already have the plumbing worked out (thanks to Grandpa Denny!) Lots of work for the fact that we had 40 days from the time we received the official notice to be out of our current house, but the Lord is providing wonderful friends to help us out.

I do have before pictures, but will not be posting them until we have the after pictures as well. I have started talking to my daycare moms and so far the ones I have spoken to are moving with me...praise the Lord!

I know that it is a difficult time, but again with all the wonderful friends and family that have been encouraging in so many different ways it helps! Thanks for the calls, emails, Facebook messages, comments on the blog, help, advise, and everything else that you are doing to encourage us! It means the world to us!

Oh, and for those of you interested in our new address either email, call, or message on Facebook and I will get it to you. For security reason we are not going to post it on the blog or facebook for everyone to see.